


Los Novios

by Tyellas



Series: Lab T-4 [18]
Category: The Shape of Water (2017)
Genre: Cute Kids, Fluff, Foreign Language, Gen, Guillermo IS THAT YOU, Post-Movie, Spanish Dialogue, Spoilers, seriously you'll need insulin it's so sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-17 22:57:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyellas/pseuds/Tyellas
Summary: On a Central American coast, one dreamer encounters two more.





	Los Novios

**Author's Note:**

> A sweet and fantastical little story as a Valentine for all the TSOW fandom readers!
> 
> All the dialogue here is in Spanish, but it's all translated at the end. Many thanks to [ fatetinhourglass](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fatetinhourglass/profile) for the beta read and to [ OkamiChan5](http://archiveofourown.org/users/OkamiChan5/pseuds/OkamiChan5) for some Spanish fixes!

They had arrived at the beach.

The little boy was the last to get out of the car, even though it was hot and sticky inside the big Cadillac. He stared out the car windows at the gleaming white sand beach and palm trees. Sadly, he sighed.

He was on vacation with Grandmama and Grandpapa, who lived near the Yucatán beaches. This meant he was missing _las peliculas Americanas_ on TV at home. Grandpapa had made him leave his monster magazines and comics at home, too. It was Grandpapa who held the car door open for him, now. “Vamanos, eh?” He remembered what Grandpapa had told him at home. _Enjoy a nice afternoon outside for once. It will make your grandmother happy._

They were parked at a little resort area with a refreshment stand. Ladies were tanning in micro-kinis. Some people were playing with Hawai’ian surfboards. He perked up at the trees darkening the southern part of the beach. Maybe there would be something interesting there, shells or bones or a shipwreck.

He was further consoled by ice cream, and by how happy Grandmama was. She pinched his cheeks as she handed him his cone. “¡Helado para mi gatito por favor!” Then Grandmama uttered a piercing shriek of recognition and ran up to a cluster of her friends. As they were comparing dresses and handbags, he managed to slip away, leaving his shoes behind. His grandfather let him go with a tolerant wave.

The boy took his ice cream to the shady trees. The white sand shifted here, dimmed to gray silt, palms blending into a patch of mangrove swamp. The shadows looked deliciously dark against the vivid sunlight.

He tiptoed into them. He was a monster, seeking shelter. A Dracula. A Frankenstein. A wonderful howling wolf. A gill man. He lurched happily into the water, splashing the soft sandy shoreline, going _grrrrr._ When the water deepened, he scampered out and hustled around the swamp, curious to see what was on its other side. It was a way to walk, but the ice cream had been frozen hard, so he had supplies. He was an arctic explorer, going to the high cold mountains...

Where the mangroves began to thin out again, he slipped down to really explore. There was a small cove in the middle, with something waving. A sail? Pirates?

He sploshed around a corner and gasped. Basking in a sandy swimming hole amidst the mangroves was...

A fish man! 

And a fish lady!

The fish man’s head was in the lady’s lap, just like the human couples further up the beach. He was underwater, stretching out dark finny limbs: she was sitting up, with her head out of the water. Her skin had a silvery sheen, and a little dark striping. Like the ladies on the beach, she didn’t have a top on.

“Hola, señora!” he said.

The woman turned, wet, dark hair whipping around. The man twisted in the water, turning onto his stomach. The woman’s hands moved in the clear water. Then she snatched up a palm frond and held it across her breasts.

When she really saw him, the woman smiled, gently. Little gills on her neck flared. The boy smiled back, enchanted. She wasn’t pretty like a movie star but pretty like his mama and grandmama. Her thin face had a few lines: her smile was very sweet. And when she smiled, the fish man lifted his body from the water, to stare at him and blink.

The boy gasped. The fish man was huge compared to the little fish lady. He had scales and gills and fins and sharp teeth and claws. A broad-shouldered monster, a beautiful monster, right here and alive. “Señor, usted es muy guapo,” he breathed.

He waded halfway to them, holding out his melting ice cream. “Helado?”

The woman’s eyes lit up. She nodded and slid closer, so that her silvery fingers could take the cone. Silently, she mouthed _thank you_. Her lips moved in English, just like in the monster movies. 

Then she slipped back to the fish man. After a first lick, she offered the fish man a bite. He took it for a taste. In his huge webbed hand, the cone looked tiny. He tried it, but made a face, closing one eye and sticking out his tongue. The lady laughed silently, then looked back at the boy. Obviously, the fish man didn’t like it but she did, she finished every bit. While she licked and nibbled, the fish man submerged again. He reached out in the sea water and grabbed a few small silvery fish for himself.

When she was done, she smiled at the boy again. She gestured at herself and the fish man. Then, she held a finger in front of her lips for silence.

The boy nodded, mirroring her gesture.

She gave him a final smile. The fish man surfaced halfway to blink serenely at him. Then, he slid an arm around the fish lady's shoulders. They both submerged and swam away, a shadow and a dash of silver under the water, leaving only her palm frond behind. He peered out to watch them go. The fish man went deeper first, swimming gracefully beneath his fish lady.

The boy sighed in bliss.

“Guillermo! Guillermo!”

That piercing voice was his grandmother’s. He scurried back, puffed and pink by the time he arrived.

“Abuela me das helado para –-"  he remembered the lady asking for silence – “La pescecita!”

Grandmama laughed and said to Grandpapa that it would take a lady fish to make him look at a girl.

Grandpapa poked him. “No, no. La pescecita que gusto helado esta en tu estomaguito!” Both his grandparents laughed.

Guillermo hopped with excitement. “Abuela, abuelo, voy ha hacer una pelicula sobre un hombre pez y su chica que etan enamorados y son novios, y que a ella le gusta el helado--”

Grandpapa chuckled. “¡Lo escuchaste novios peces!”

“Mes gusta mas que la de monstruos, yo si veria una pelicula de novios peces.” He was happy at that, too, that Grandmama would finally watch one of his movies, when he made them someday.

They walked along the beach boardwalk. Guillermo didn’t mind how long they took or that Grandmama stopped to talk to more friends. He was planning the movie. Eventually, they drove home.

Guillermo looked back at the beach and its little swamp fondly. Grandpapa was almost right. The fish people weren’t in his stomach. He felt the secret delight of them fluttering inside him, higher up. He couldn’t decide if they were in his head, or in his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, they are a _little_ off course for the Amazon here. But in a universe where these characters actually exist, surely this meeting was meant to be.
> 
> Dialogue translations:  
>  _las peliculas Americanas_ \--the American movies  
>  _Vamanos, eh_ \-- Let’s go!  
>  _¡Helado para mi gatito por favor!_ \-- Ice cream for my kitten!  
>  _Senor, usted es muy guapo_ -– Mister, you’re really handsome  
>  _Abuela me das helado para la pescecita_ -– Grandma, I gave my ice cream to a (lady) fish  
>  _La pescecita que que quiere helado esta en tu estomaguito_ –- The (lady) fish who wants ice cream is inside your tummy!  
>  _Abuela, abuelo, voy ha hacer una pelicula sobre un hombre pez y su chica que etan enamorados y son novios, y que a ella le gusta el helado_ \-- Grandmother, grandfather, I’m going to make a, a movie about a fish-man and his lady, and they are in love/a couple, and she wants an ice cream...  
>  _¡Lo escuchaste novios peces!_ –- Listen to this kid, huh? Fish that are engaged/in love!  
>  _Mes gusta mas que la de monstruos, yo si veria una pelicula de novios peces._ –- I like that better than the monsters. A movie about the fish lovers, I would watch.


End file.
